“New Bali is an idiomatic term the government uses that suggests the country can replicate the Bali success story at other emerging destinations to achieve a similar tourist performance as Bali achieved,” BBTF officials explained.

BBTF presents travel content from hotels, destinations and tour operators to overseas travel buyers, but there is also a section of the show for national tourist offices from other countries to promote travel content. Timor-Leste, Cambodia, Uzbekistan, Thailand and Singapore had booths at this year’s event, but the main focus of the show continued to promote travel to Bali and Indonesia.

Hosted travel buyers have to demonstrate they can supply 10,000 travellers a year to Bali with a minimum spend of USD1,265 per visit.

Until the volcano Mount Agung erupted, Bali was on a roll increasing tourist arrivals by leaps and bounds with the latest estimates suggesting more than 50,000 tourists arrive at the island’s airport daily. This performance suffered a set back in 2017 due to Mount Agung’s rumblings and eruptions and 2018 natural calamities that have hit Indonesia.